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Discover the Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal, with all the mysteries in order, book summaries, and guidance on the best place to start reading.

Last updated: January 13, 2026

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Publication Order

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11 books

1

The Last Hope

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2024

In the finale of the Maggie Hope series, British intelligence orders Maggie to assassinate physicist Werner Heisenberg before he can build a Nazi atomic bomb. Following him to neutral Madrid and working uneasily with Coco Chanel, she must weigh duty, betrayal, and her chance at a future.

2

The Hollywood Spy

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2021

In 1943 Los Angeles, Maggie Hope arrives to help her former fiancé after his new love is found dead in a glamorous hotel pool. Amid jazz clubs, studio back lots, Zoot Suit tensions, and homegrown hate groups, she hunts a killer on the American home front.

3

The King's Justice

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2020

By late 1943, burned-out Maggie Hope is defusing unexploded bombs in London and flirting with danger. Drawn into a case involving a stolen Stradivarius and murdered conscientious objectors, she uncovers a chilling link between the theft, the killings, and her own history.

4

The Prisoner in the Castle

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2018

Sent to an isolated Scottish island with other agents who know too many secrets, Maggie Hope finds herself effectively imprisoned in a crumbling castle. When her fellow prisoners begin dying one by one, she must unmask a killer and escape before she becomes the next victim.

5

The Paris Spy

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2017

Disguised as a glamorous Irishwoman, Maggie Hope slips into Nazi-occupied Paris to search for her missing half sister and a fellow agent whose work is crucial to the coming Allied invasion. Moving through salons and safe houses, she plays a deadly game against German intelligence.

6

The Queen's Accomplice

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2016

Back in blacked-out London, Maggie Hope helps hunt a serial killer who is copying Jack the Ripper and targeting young women bound for secret service work. Working with Scotland Yard and SOE, she battles misogyny, fear, and a murderer who has marked her next.

7

Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2015

Soon after Pearl Harbor, Maggie Hope travels to Washington, D.C., posing as Churchill’s typist during his historic visit. When one of Eleanor Roosevelt’s aides is found dead, Maggie quietly investigates a conspiracy that could sabotage American support for the war.

8

The Prime Minister's Secret Agent

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2014

Teaching recruits at a remote Scottish spy school, Maggie Hope is trying to recover from her Berlin mission when ballerinas in nearby Glasgow fall mysteriously ill. As she hunts a poisoner, she stumbles into secrets that link Britain’s war effort to looming conflict in the Pacific.

9

His Majesty's Hope

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2013

Now an agent with the Special Operations Executive, Maggie Hope parachutes into Nazi-controlled Berlin on a clandestine mission. Living under an assumed identity, she infiltrates high society to pass intelligence home, but the secrets she uncovers about the regime and her own family cut dangerously close.

10

Princess Elizabeth's Spy

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2012

After training as a spy for MI-5, Maggie Hope is sent to Windsor Castle disguised as Princess Elizabeth's new math tutor. When a lady-in-waiting is murdered, Maggie must navigate court etiquette and hidden loyalties to stop a plot against the royal family.

11

Mr. Churchill's Secretary

by Susan Elia MacNeal

2012

In 1940 London, brilliant mathematician Maggie Hope takes what seems like a routine typing job at 10 Downing Street. As the Blitz begins, she uncovers coded messages, Irish and Nazi plots, and family secrets that place Winston Churchill and Britain itself in mortal danger.

Recommended by:

Dana Perino

Series background & context

The Maggie Hope novels follow a fiercely capable young woman through the darkest years of World War II. When readers first meet Maggie in Mr. Churchill's Secretary, she is a British born, American raised mathematician who takes what she can get, a typist’s job at 10 Downing Street during the Blitz.

From that starting point, the series shows how she is gradually pulled deeper into the British war effort. Her sharp mind and fluency with codes earn her a place with MI-5 and eventually the Special Operations Executive, the shadowy organization that trains agents for undercover work in occupied Europe. As Maggie’s skills grow, so do the risks she is asked to take.

Every book drops her into a different corner of the war.

Early stories keep her close to the centers of power. In Princess Elizabeth's Spy she goes undercover as a math tutor at Windsor Castle, watching over the young princess while navigating royal protocol and palace intrigue. In His Majesty's Hope and The Prime Minister's Secret Agent the focus shifts outward as she joins black ops missions, first in Berlin and then back in Scotland and London, where poisonings, espionage, and the approach of Pearl Harbor collide.

Later installments push her even farther from the relative safety of Whitehall. Mrs. Roosevelt’s Confidante sends her to Washington at a critical moment in the Anglo American alliance. The Queen's Accomplice and The King's Justice confront the violence and prejudice simmering inside Britain itself, from a murderer stalking would be female agents to attacks on conscientious objectors. The Paris Spy and The Prisoner in the Castle move between occupied France and a remote Scottish island, pairing spy craft with locked room style tension, while The Hollywood Spy and The Last Hope take Maggie to Los Angeles and neutral Spain as the war and her own story reach their climax.

Across the series, MacNeal threads real historical figures and events into Maggie's fictional journey. Winston Churchill, Princess Elizabeth, Eleanor Roosevelt, Coco Chanel, and physicist Werner Heisenberg all appear, not as stiff cameos but as people making hard choices under pressure. Readers get both the big picture of strategy meetings and invasions and the small details of ration cards, blackout curtains, and friendships forged in shared danger.

What ties the books together is Maggie herself and the questions she has to face. The mysteries ask not only who committed a crime, but what it means to fight a just war with imperfect tools, how much truth a government should hide, and how a young woman holds on to her sense of self when everything around her is changing. The result is a long running series that blends puzzle solving, suspense, and immersive history into one continuous, character driven arc.

Edited by

Richard Reis

Software engineer whose passion for tracking book recommendations from podcasts inspired the creation of MRB.

Anurag Ramdasan

Lead investor at 3one4 Capital whose startup expertise and love for books helped shaped MRB and its growth.

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All 11 Maggie Hope Books in Order (Complete List 2026)